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NBA Betting Trends

Minnesota Timberwolves

Minnesota is 0-5 SU in their last 5 games when playing on the road against LA Lakers

The total has gone UNDER in 7 of Minnesota’s last 9 games when playing on the road against LA Lakers

Minnesota is 0-5 SU in their last 5 games when playing LA Lakers

Minnesota is 1-10 SU in its last 11 games on the road

The total has gone OVER in 5 of Minnesota’s last 6 games when playing LA Lakers

Los Angeles Lakers

LA Lakers are 1-5 ATS in their last 6 games when playing at home against Minnesota

LA Lakers are 5-0 SU in their last 5 games when playing at home against Minnesota

LA Lakers are 5-0 SU in their last 5 games when playing Minnesota

The total has gone UNDER in 7 of the LA Lakers last 9 games when playing at home against Minnesota

The total has gone OVER in 5 of the LA Lakers last 6 games when playing Minnesota

NBA – February 28th

The Los Angeles Lakers have beaten the Minnesota Timberwolves 20 consecutive times. They’ll go for a 21st in a row against the T’Wolves on Thursday night in the back end of the TNT NBA betting double dip.

The Timberwolves enter this one with three losses in a row under their belt, but they have really been suffering brutal defeat after brutal defeat. They were beaten in OT by a point by the Phoenix Suns just two days after losing by a point to the Golden State Warriors at home. Minnesota is now 2-7 in games decided by three points or fewer this year, and had those numbers flipped around, perhaps this would still be a team in the playoff hunt. Of course, had the injuries not mounted up the way that they did over the course of the first half of the season, perhaps the Timberwolves would be a better team as well. Alas, F Kevin Love, who has never witnessed a win against the Lakers, is still out of the lineup for an extended period of time for the second time this season, and he is currently joined by G Malcolm Lee (out for the season), G Brandon Roy (probably retiring), F Chase Budinger (has been out since November), F Andrei Kirilenko (doubtful for Thursday), and C Nikola Pekovic (questionable with an undisclosed injury). It’s tough to win when you’ve got this many problems.

Meanwhile, the Lakers now have another opportunity to get back within a game of the .500 mark after losing to the Denver Nuggets on Monday night. That snapped a three-game winning streak. LA hasn’t had a problem beating up the teams that it should be beating. It’s the ones that are going to be competing for playoff spots that are giving it troubles. G Kobe Bryant is back to being a scorer first and a distributor second, and though that’s good news for fantasy basketball players, it might not be remarkable news for Lakers’ bettors. Kobe has put up 29, 38, and 40 points in his last three games, and he is now up to 27.1 points, 5.6 assists, and 5.4 rebounds per game. The real shift though, has come from C Dwight Howard. Howard’s stats aren’t really getting all that much better; he is averaging 16.8 points and 13.8 boards per game since the All-Star Break and is averaging 16.3 points and 11.9 boards per game for the season. However, his demeanor looks different at this point. This is a changed man that has a real mean streak about him at the moment; it is almost as if Howard realizes that he is in a contract season and will be commanding big bucks from some team next season. It’s helping the Lakers now, but Howard needs to do more if this team is going to get into the playoffs.

Prediction:

There really is little reason to think that the Timberwolves are going to be able to hang around in this one. The team hasn’t historically played well after these close losses, and a lot of the better teams have been blowing this squad out of late. The Lakers are rolling right now, and they’ll continue to do so on Thursday night. Los Angeles 106 – Minnesota 95

Adam Markowitz

is a staff writer living in the Orlando area. He has covered NFL, MLB, college football, CFL, AFL, NBA, college basketball, NASCAR, golf, tennis, and the NHL for a number of various outlets in his career, and he has been published by a number of different media outlets, including the Orlando Sentinel and the Wall Street Journal.